Research Article Preparation of High Modulus Poly(Ethylene Terephthalate): Influence of Molecular Weight, Extrusion, and Drawing Parameters Jian Min Zhang, 1 Qingsong Hua, 1 Christopher T. Reynolds, 2 Yuling Zhao, 1 Zuoqiang Dai, 1 Emiliano Bilotti, 2 Jie Tang, 1 and Ton Peijs 2 1 School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Qingdao University and Power & Energy Storage System Research Center, No. 308 Ningxia Road, Qingdao 266071, China 2 School of Engineering and Materials Science and Materials Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK Correspondence should be addressed to Jie Tang; [email protected] and Ton Peijs; [email protected] Received 29 October 2016; Revised 12 December 2016; Accepted 28 December 2016; Published 26 January 2017 Academic Editor: Alessandro Pegoretti Copyright © 2017 Jian Min Zhang et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) which is one of the most commercially important polymers, has for many years been an interesting candidate for the production of high performance fibres and tapes. In current study, we focus on investigating the effects of the various processing variables on the mechanical properties of PET produced by a distinctive process of melt spinning and uniaxial two-stage solid-state drawing (SSD). ese processing variables include screw rotation speed during extrusion, fibre take-up speed, molecular weight, draw-ratio, and drawing temperature. As-spun PET production using a single-screw extrusion process was first optimized to induce an optimal polymer microstructure for subsequent drawing processes. It was found that less crystallization which occurred during this process would lead to better drawability, higher draw-ratio, and mechanical properties in the subsequent SSD process. en the effect of drawing temperature (DT) in uniaxial two-stage SSD process was studied to understand how DT (< or close to or close to rec ) would affect the crystallization, draw-ratio, and final mechanical properties of PET. e designed process in current work is simulated to an industrial production process for PET fibres; therefore, results and analysis in this paper have significant importance for industrial production. 1. Introduction ere are a number of technical routes to improve the mechanical properties of polymeric materials. e most popular method to improve the intrinsic properties of poly- mers is to fully align the polymer chains in the loading (e.g., fibre or film) direction in order to utilize the intrinsic stiffness and strength of polymer molecules to the maximum. Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), which is one of the most commercially important polymers, has for many years been an interesting candidate for the production of high performance fibres and tapes. It was reported that 60% of the world polyester production in 2010 was consumed in the form of fibres [1]. Various methods have been investigated by previous researchers, involving spinning, drawing, and annealing processes [1–8]. ese methods, including vibrat- ing hot drawing, zone-drawing, cold-drawing, horizontal isothermal bath, draw by using high pressure CO 2 , and high speed in-line drawing, are quite different from each other; however, the fundamentals are the same. During these pro- cesses reorganization of amorphous and crystalline phases in the PET microstructure occurs, and it is widely accepted that orientation in both the amorphous phase and the crystalline phase is essential to achieve high mechanical properties for these fibres. It was proposed in literature [9, 10] that the orientating process will transform initial microstructure into a fibrillar one, which is a good way of explaining how various properties are affected by orientation. In the traditional fibre and textile industry, there are basically two different approaches to generate chain extension Hindawi International Journal of Polymer Science Volume 2017, Article ID 2781425, 10 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/2781425
Preparation of High Modulus Poly(Ethylene Terephthalate): Influence of Molecular Weight, Extrusion, and Drawing Parameters
Jun 21, 2023
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